Fire-escape



(No Model.) 2 Sheets-Sheet 1. T. B. WOODWARD.

FIRE ESCAPE.

No. 327,976. 2 Patented 001;. 6, 1885 iiminmmmii l I:

1 1; I" I i l W l i '1 HM s, WITNESSES: INVENTOR:

r podwa/Id/ BY ANGER}? (No Model.) 2 Sheets-Sheet 2.

I T. B. WOODWARD.

FIRE ESGAPE.

Patented Oct. 6, 1885 a WiTNEE ATTORNEYS.

N, PETERS, Plvm-Lnho m hu Washington. 0, c.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

THEODORE B. \VOODWARD, OF NORWAY, PENNSYLVANIA.

FIRE-ESCAPE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 327,976, dated October 6,1885.

Application filed March 20, 1885. Serial No. 159,560.

T0 at whom it may concern:

I Be it known that I, THEODORE B. WOOD- WARD, acitizen of the United States, residing at Norway, in the county of Chester and State of Pennsylvania, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Fire-Escapes, ofwhich the following is a description.

This invention relates to that class of fire escapes by means of which either people or merchandise may be lowered from the windows of a burning house; and its object is to provide means whereby the walls of an escape-car may be adjusted to admit passengers and then set to shield them from flames which may shoot out of lower windows; means whereby the car may be hung upon a house to descend in front of the windows thereof, and means whereby the car may be raised, and whereby its descent may be controlled either by the occupants thereof, by persons on the ground or by persons 011 any floor of the house.

To this end my invention consists in the construction and combination of parts forming a fire-escape, hereinafter described and claimed, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, in which Figure 1 is a front elevation of a portion of a house showing my fire-escape thereon. Fig. 2 is a transverse vertical section of a portion of a building, showing the same invention in side elevation. Fig. 3 is an enlarged view of the escape-car in transverse vertical section.

A represents the house, which may be of any number of stories, of any style of construction,and suited to any purpose.

B represents the body of the escape-car, which I prefer to make of incombustible materialsuch as sheet-iron. I have shown it shaped as a chair convenient for one or more persons to sit in while descending from a house.

0 is a bail, which may be wire rope or a chain secured to the car, and provided with a ring, D, where the hooks of two liftingchains, E, may be attached or detached at will, so that the car when not in use may be removed and kept in any convenient place.

F is a roller journaled in brackets G, located above the window of an upper story within the house.

(No model.)

grooves on the ends of the roller F, and passing down through the various stories of the house around pulleys h, to serve as continuous belts, whereby persons on any floor may raise or lower the car by turning the roller.

J is a brake pivoted to the house to lie upon the roller, and K is a chain extending therefrom down through each story of the house, whereby persons on any floor may control the descent of the car by'applying the brake upon the roller.

L is a short chain attached to the car by means of a fixed hook, M.

N is a hook secured on the window-sill of each story of the house in the verticalline of the escape, upon which the chain L may be temporarily secured to hold the car while the latter is being filled. The hook N is pivoted to revolve, so that when the car is ready to descend the hook is to be turned with its point out of the window, when it will allow the chain L to pull off, leaving the car free to be controlled by the chains I and K by persons in the house.

0 is another chain attached to the brake and extendinginto the car, where it isto be hooked to another chain, P, which is kept wound upon a winch, Q, beneath the seat of the car. By this means a personin the car may control the brake to govern his own descent with the car, the chain 1? paying off from the winch Q as the car descends. When once down, the chain P may be unhooked from the winch and left to hang to the ground,wherebypersons on the ground may control the descent of the car by the brake.

R is a winch upon which a chain, S, maybe wound when not in use. When needed, this chain is to be run off from the winch, to be used by persons on the ground in guiding the direction of the descent of the car, so that it may escape window-cornices, or so that the occupants may be landed at some distance from the house.

T is a wire hung to thehouse above the W111- dow, and made long enough to reach the car when hung to the window-sill. U is a wire or wire rope to be attached at one end to a ICO 'ter the car freely at its back.

staple or hook, V, fixed at some convenient point away from thehouse,to be paid out from the car through its bottom as it ascends the first time, and to be attached at its upper end to the wire'T. The wire U may also pass through the ring D to guide the car in line. The Wires T andUform a sort of rail on which the car may slide up and down. WVhen this rail is used, the guide-chain S may beidle; and

the sides of the car to retain the shield in place, permitting it to rise and fall. (Z is a shield for the back of the car, fitted to slide therein, descending by gravity, and being raised by a yoke, c, which depends from the shielda when the shield is raised. Both shields are to be lowered to permit passengers to en- They may leave it from the front when safe on the ground. f represents one or more chains to be wound on the roller F, and to extend to the ground, whereby persons outside may wind up the roller to raise the car.

What I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. The combination, in a fire-escape, of a roller, F, journaled in brackets above a window within a house, the pulleys H, j ournaled above the window on its outside, the car B, provided with the bail O and ring D, the chains E, attachable at one end to the ring D, extending over the pulleys H, and attached at the other end, to be wound upon the roller F, the chains I, mounted on the roller and extending down through the different stories of the house, the pulleys h therefor, the brake J, pivoted to the house, to lie upon the roller F, and the two chains K and 0, extending therefrom,

one passing down through the house and the other out at the window, substantially as shown and described.

2. The combination of the roller F, journaled in a house, the chains I, mounted on the roller as belts, the chains E, secured to wind thereon, the chains f, secured to wind upon the roller F in a direction opposite to the chains I, a car, B, securcble to the chains E, a wire, T, hung to the house above the window, the staple V, secured to the ground, and the wire U, adapted to be hooked to the staple at one end andto the wire T at the other end, and the ring D, attached to the car, the wire U, passing through the car and the said ring as a rail therefor. 3. The combination of the car-body B, the guides c 0, secured thereto, the shield at, fitted around two or more sides of the car to slide up and-down behind the guides c c, and the cord b, adapted to raise the shield, as shown and described.

4. Thecombination of the car-body B, the guides c a secured thereto, the shield at, fitted to slide within'the guides, the cord 1), adapted to raise the shield, another shield, (Z, fitted to slide-in the back of the car, and a yoke, e, depending from the shield a, to engage the shield 01, substantially as shown and described.

5. The combination of the car B, the roller F, journaled in a house, the chains E, connecting the car with the roller, the chain L, secured at one end to the car and having aloop at the other end, and the hook N, pivoted to revolve in thewindow-sill, substantially as described, whereby the chain L may be attached, and whereby'the same will be set free when the hook is turned with its point outward from the window.

The above specification of my invention signed by me in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

THEODORE B. \VOODWVARD.

WVitnesses:

W. X. STEVENS, SoLoN G. KEMoN. 

